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Thanksgiving
|image=Thanksgiving.jpg |airdate=May 18, 2003 |previous=Goodbye Kitty |next=Malcolm Films Reese }}Thanksgiving is the fourth episode of Season 5 and the 89th episode overall of Malcolm in the Middle. It aired on November 23, 2003. Synopsis Malcolm wants anything but to spend another dreadful Thanksgiving with his obnoxious family. Luckily for him, he has made a group of friends who are fairly normal and is willing to ditch his family to have a party with them. Plot Malcolm makes new friends, including one girl who he is unsure if she likes him. One of the friends, Dylan, plans a party on the day of Thanksgiving. Malcolm, though Lois fails to understand why he wouldn't want to spend Thanksgiving with his family, attends this party. Hal understands this and gives him permission to do so. Meanwhile, Reese employs Hal and Dewey to help him cook a fantastic thanksgiving feast. So much so that he's made the kitchen off-limits to everyone else so that he can be focused entirely on cooking dinner, such as using a monkfish to help the turkey lock in all of the juices and getting Dewey to obtain the correct spices from a farmer's market. Francis and Piama come over, obviously angry at each other. Lois is distressed over this, until he reveals that they had gotten in a fight because he wouldn't let her drive after he had been drinking and wants a divorce. She demands that Francis apologize to her at once, but he refuses and accuse her for trying to destroy his life like she's always done. Hal witnesses this and tells Lois off how he feels in all of this. He points out that her little plan to get them to divorce is going to blow up in her face one day. Lois maintains her stance that she's doing the right thing and Hal doesn't believe her. He calls her out again for being a selfish and overbearing control freak. Hal mentions that she had never accepted their marriage at all and points out that Malcolm may have been right to avoid celebrating Thanksgiving with the family after her latest behavior. Lois is in shock upon hearing this and he reminds her that the previous Thanksgivings that the family's had, she had ruined just because she could never take responsibility for her behavior. Hal also reveals that he had allowed Malcolm permission that he can hang out at Dylan's house for Thanksgiving. Lois is angered by this and shouts at him for undermining her orders. In turn, they get into a nasty fight. Hal mentions that Lois' overbearing and controlling nature will come back to haunt her one day. She shouts at him, stating the family can't function without her keeping everything stable. Hal ends the argument by telling her off to mind her own business from now on. Soon after, Reese and Dewey get into a fight over his kleptomaniac behavior. The fight reaches it's climax when Lois tries to handle the problem on her own by trying to get Piama to talk to Francis. Her attempt succeeds in angering them to continue their fight. Hal points out again that Lois always makes things worse just for her own benefit. Soon everyone is seen blaming each other for ruining their Thanksgiving. Lois is fed up with the whole behavior of her family and decides that Hal is right about her causing too much problems. Thus, she decides to stay out of it from now on. Malcolm is enjoying himself at Dylan's house getting drunk and making out with Kristen. Eventually when it comes time to have sex with her and at the last second, he refuses and leaves for home. At the house, everyone continues to give each other the silent treatment. Lois demands to know why Malcolm isn't home for Thanksgiving. Hal and Francis both tell her to shut up and let him live his own life. Piama isn't very happy either, mentioning that she'd rather have taken her chances on her deadbeat dad and her absentee mother. Dewey wishes to be excused so he can leave for his room and stay there all night long. Reese comes in and saves Thanksgiving by bringing out the family dinner made up of salad, steamed carrots, squash stuffing, shrimp, green beans, a meatloaf tower with asparagus, and the piece de resistance, the turkey monkfish. Everyone is feeling relieved for a brief moment and impressed by his culinary efforts. Malcolm shows up drunk and ruins the festivities by openly insulting Lois for her poor parenting skills and calling her out as a terrible mother. He also mentions that since he had a good time at his friends house, it was worth seeing her reaction to all of it. Lois is offended and grounds him immediately for insulting her. Malcolm continues to ignore Lois by insulting her and ending it with unintentionally throwing up in the turkey. This embarrasses his family and angers Reese because he ruined dinner. The next day, Malcolm sobers up from his drunken bout. He shows regrets not sleeping with Kristen when he had the chance and is remorseful in ruining Reese's dinner for Thanksgiving during his drunken rant about Lois' poor parenting skills. Malcolm is fearful that he may not forgive him and probably beat him up for it. Francis understands it and comforts him by telling him 9 of Lois' punishments that she will inflict on him while he was drunk. Hal finally had enough of the silent treatment and begs her to intervene once more. Lois refuses to intervene this time. She tells Hal off that he was right about her causing too much problems and that she will take his advice by minding her own business from now on. Hal mentions that she was right the first time and the family can't function without her. He admits that he doesn't have the patience to deal with this kind of conflict between Francis and Piama like Lois does. She finally intervenes once more and apologizes for her behavior. Lois mentions that she is trying to accept their marriage and help out, but even she still has her struggles with it from time to time. She discovers that Francis and Piama actually tricked her by pretending to fight with each other. They sought Hal's help because they knew Lois had been having problems with accepting their marriage. This was his way of getting her to apologize and take responsibility for her mistakes. After Francis and Piama leave, Hal thanks Lois for finally doing the right thing and apologize for her behavior. Cast *Jane Kaczmerek as Lois *Bryan Cranston as Hal *Christopher Kennedy Masterson as Francis *Justin Berfield as Reese *Erik Per Sullivan as Dewey *Frankie Muniz as Malcolm Guest Stars Recurring *Emy Coligado as Piama Cameos *Alessanrda Toresani as Kristen *Marshall Allman as Dylan *Joel Anderson as Mr. Edwards(Dylan's father) *John O'Brien as sales Clerk *Joyce Corradetti as Biker Chick Trivia *This episode aired a day before Thanksgiving. *This episode revisits Reese's stunning ability to cook. (Reese Cooks) Category:Episodes Category:Season 5 Category:Holiday Episodes Category:Episodes focusing on Malcolm